The Letters
by GForce64
Summary: Adorned with a seal no one can identify, and containing a letter that contains a daunting challenge, 9 letters have been sent to the greatest trainers of the modern era. It remains to be seen what the proposal inside entails. Rated for future artistic fre
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon, and any other previously created entities. Game Freak and Nintendo does in an arrangement they created for themselves. I do, however, own my original creations. Do not use them without permission. This disclaimer applies for all chapters submitted for this story.

Some notes before we begin-  
I tossed around the idea for this in my head for a while before getting it on paper. I know this chapter is very short, think of it as a teaser of things to come and an indication of my writing style. I haven't tried writing any fanfiction in months, and I abandoned my only other published project. I like this idea significantly more, so we'll see how it develops.

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**The Letters: Prologue**

I'm sure most everyone's been to a post office. You've all seen the P.O. Boxes, waited in line to send a package, stared at the framed stamp montages that line the walls. Thousands of items of mail go through a post office every day, so it's not often that a piece of mail would be considered strange. Today, however, happened to be one of those days.

Pierre was the worker who noticed the letters first. He was a tall, svelte man in his 20s, with vibrant red hair that almost seemed to be on fire. That fire didn't apply to his personality today, however, as he was lethargically staring at the mail sorting machine drop mail into the different carts, to be pushed torward Jeeps that lay waiting for their next trip. That is, until he noticed 9 pieces of identical mail that looked rather strange shoot out of the machine into the _Indigo Plateau _cart.

The envelopes in question were not of the regular white variety, but of a more aged, tan paper. The address was scripted in a fancy, almost illegible typeface, and rather than being closed with glue or tape, they were sealed with wax that was embossed with a scripted G over a stylized depiction of a Master Ball. Considering the recent scares of terrorism at the politically prominent Pokémon League, he quickly pulled them out of the bin, and yelled for his supervisor.

"Hey, Karen, come take a look at this..."

Karen strutted into the room, obviously perturbed that she was disturbed from whatever menial office work she happened to be doing. She aged well coming into her early thirties, and was blessed with wavy brunette locks, the body of a goddess, and a brilliantly manipulative personality. She used her looks and intelligence to make an "impression" on management and was mover in the post office world.

Today, however, she was regretting moving up in the world, and was ready to unleash her wrath . She snapped at him "What is it NOW?"

"Uh, look at these..." Pierre stuttered, lapsing into his French accent before handing the 9 letters over.

Karen muttered to herself, "Let's take a look at this...". Her first thoughts were _Why the hell would he bring me in here for some rich asshole sending invitations to his friends? _before she flipped through the letters and noticed who they were addressed to. _Red, Blue, Lance, Gold, Silver, Brendan, May, Wally, Steven. These are all highly talented Masters and very prone political targets. _She then turned the letter over and noticed the seal. _Ah. This is how he makes his comeback._

"Pierre, do not disturb me for simple matters such as this. It is obvious some affluent old man wishes to entertain these Masters to the idea of attending a party. In the future, use your own judgment." Pierre watched Karen as she slipped the letters into the cart, and walked out of the room. Little did he know the carnage they would wreak.

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Like I said, very short, the actual first chapter is coming very soon. Please review. 


	2. The Deliveries Begin

I'll respond to the reviews through both e-mail and the story, to encourage constructive criticism. Thanks in advance to all who review.

Tokyo-to-America: Thanks for the tips, glad you enjoy my writing style. This chapter's quite a bit longer than the prologue, so I hope you (and everyone else who reads it) enjoys it.

Disclaimer still applies.

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**The Letters: Chapter 1: The Deliveries Begin**

The Pokemon denizens of Mt. Silver quickly learned not to disturb Red while he meditated. As the residing Head Master over the Kanto branch of Pokemon League, Red quickly learned a strong but silent approach to leadership worked well. Mt. Silver's inhabitants quickly took to his approach, learning not to disturb him the hard way by being the targets of immensely powerful attacks unleashed by his keenly trained Pokemon. Red enjoyed the area as a result of the lack of disturbances (along with many other celebrities), and often came here to think. Today, he happened to be here thinking about his career. _I could retire today and be a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame, _he thought to himself. _Being able to beat 99.9 of the trainers on the planet in any given fight is not fun after a while. My Pokemon are becoming lethargic, clamoring for a fight. I need a new challenge._

He didn't even notice the great bird of prey Pidgeot glide into the room, it's streamer-like head feathers slithering through the wind as it carried it's female rider towards him. The great bird navigated the stalagmites and stalactites of the inner mountain with ease, gliding around the rock structures towards the almost meditative Red. It took the rider hopping off and initiating conversation with him for Red to notice he had a visitor. "Deep in thought, eh?" she noted. Red looked up from his meditative state, and was surprised to see the smiling face of his mother.

His mother rarely disturbed him when he was thinking here, so that she decided to show up (and quickly at that, noting at the method of transportation) meant something strange was happening. She had aged well, keeping a fit body and a kind face that was always inviting. Today, her face was adorned with a smirk that indicated she was determined to deliver her message. "Honey, you know I let you keep your space, but you got an interesting piece of mail today."

Red reached his hand out and stated, "I assume you have it." He was never one for small talk.

His mother smiled. _He's just like his father._ "Yes, here." She proceeded to pull the first letter out of her purse and handed it to him.

He quickly figured out why she thought it was worthy of coming to Mt. Silver for. _Looks like an invitation of sorts, but the old coots figured out I didn't want to be their pawns at dinner parties a long time ago, so what the hell can it be?_ He then flipped it over to open it, and noted the seal on the back. Rather than breaking it, he pulled out his pocket knife and sliced off the embossed top, and packed it away to investigate later. He then broke the seal, and removed the envelope's contents.

Red proceeded to quickly scan through the letter, as his mother watched. Once he finished, he quickly got his things together, wished her a hurried goodbye, and took off on his choice method of travel, the extremely rare bird Pokemon Zapdos he'd caught years ago. _Blue and Lance sure as hell got one of these, and I know they'll be at the league asap. This is worthy of me heading down there early._

_

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_Red's prediction about Blue was correct. However, the circumstances his letter was delivered under were significantly more different than Red's.

Never being one to shy away from the spotlight, Blue was much more of a public figure than Red ever was, quickly garnering more popularity as Head Master than Red ever dreamed of in his short-lived tenure. Although once a fierce rival of Red, he became a good friend of him, even with their greatly clashing personalities. With an athletic body, fashionable mindset, a brash but likable personality, and amazing bloodlines, Blue was the trainer everyone expected to be the Head Master, and used this fact often to attract his items of choice, beautiful ladies.. He was enjoying the company of said ladies today, enjoying a break in his duties as the 8th gym leader to take a trip to the beach at Cinnibar. Naturally, he brought an entourage of his favorite women with him. His letter came whilst he was in the middle of telling one of his famed stories to his followers.

"And thaaaaats when I caught good ol' 'Zam and trained him up. He actually evolved for the first time in a battle with Red." Blue was known for boasting, but often got caught in the shadow of Red. Although he was liked more than Red, no one doubted who was the more talented trainer.

One of the more ditzy women that followed him around was infamous for noting this fact often. She didn't seem to realize what effect it had on his psyche. It was rumored the only reason he kept her around was because she was extremely beautiful, more so than the majority of her counterparts, and, in his words, was "a nice lay." She retorted, "So he became a Kadabra on a loss? Great way to start your career, eh?"

Blue rolled his eyes. He hated when she did that. "Yes, yes, it was a rare loss to the best trainer on the planet. I can handle that." _I couldn't at the time, though. Trained my ass off to beat him, but never did._ Blue often thought back to what he could have done differently to have held the Head Master position longer, but he soon became content with his current position. He saw how stressed Red was daily, and didn't want that for himself.

Noting the bumbling post office worker headed in his direction and thankful for a distraction, Blue quickly hopped up and attended to whatever it was he needed. "Whatcha need, man?"

The worker handed over the second letter and told him "You have a very important letter, sir."

Blue quickly tore open the envelope and pulled out its contents. Scanning through the letter, he quickly lost the ever-present grin that adorned his face, and issued a somber warning to his entourage. "Sorry guys, you have to go, I have business to attend to." The whines of displeasure annoyed him, but he appeased them with a smiling assurance that "I'll be back."

His followers, now appeased, soon left, and he threw out a Poke Ball containing his favored lead-off, Pidgeot. He ordered the Pokemon to take him to Indigo Plateau, hopped on its back, and exited the area on a thermal, coasting towards the Pokemon League.

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Lance was at the League Office, enjoying breakfast with his colleagues inside the League's lounge before beginning the work day. Once setting a precedent becoming a long-residing Head Master of two leagues, he now enjoyed a comparatively less stressful role of being the Elite Four of Kanto's top member. In his late 30s, starting to grey, but still adorning the Dragon Master's grab of his home town of Blackthorne, Lance was currently addled with a mild mid-life crisis, but still held his open personality. At the moment, Agatha, the old woman who was the Elite 4's resident ghost master, was enjoying picking fun at Lance. 

"So, you bought a motorcycle yet? Or is a sports car in the works?" she joked as her Gengar delivered a cup of coffee to her. She quickly thanked her Pokemon before returning it to it's ball, and continued the attack. "I'd get a Mustang, myself. You could walk into a dealership and pay in cash if you wanted to. I hear that Cobra's pretty fast."

Lance was perturbed, but rather than sulking, he countered the verbal attack. "At least I see well enough to drive." He'd been around long enough to know a flying cane was imminent, and quickly ducked in advance of the projectile, safely watching the hand-carved walking aid fly over his head.

Lorelei and Bruno watched the onslaught from the safety of the lounge's couch, while holding a small and more relevant conversation quietly to themselves. They noticed the aide come in, asking for Lance. Lorelei spoke to Lance, noting "You have a visitor."

Quickly donning a serious face and walking to the lounge's door, Lance addressed the aide. "What is it you need?"

The aide quickly saluted, replied "You have mail, sir," and handed the third letter over.

Lance thought it strange to receive such a decorative letter so late in his career. _I haven't received an invitation in years..._he thought to himself, noting the seal on the wax as familiar before breaking it. He proceeded to quickly scan his letter, before encasing it in it's envelope.

Agatha, sensing a joke opportunity, asked what it was first. "That a letter from the dealership, Lance?"

He somberly replied, "No. It's something more serious, and if my intuition's correct, Red and Blue will be here very soon, and possibly Gold and Silver later on. Have an aide get the meeting room ready. We may have a new challenge on our hands."

Seeing that Lance had suddenly become very serious, the other members of the Elite 4 decided to heed his commands, and headed towards the meeting room, addressing an ever-present aide along the way.

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This should be slightly more indicative of how long a chapter will be. Next chapter should be some more of the reactions to the letters, possibly the beginning of the meeting, and maybe even _what the letters said._ As always, please review. I could use all the help I can get. 


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